the science behind the beauty

What is Lactic Acid? & Baby Foot Review

At the Face & Body Expoback in January, I snagged a Baby Foot treatment kit for $10! I would have regretted not trying out this crazy exfoliating foot trend. If you don’t know what I’m referring to this product is basically an exfoliating mask for your foot. The kit comes with 2 double layer product-soaked booties, one for each foot, meant to be worn for 1 hour each and then washed off. The booties come with very strong tape that can be used to make sure the booties are tightly sealed. After one hour you simply wash off the essence from your feet and wait ~7 days to watch the gross skin peeling begin.

If you’re wondering what ingredients actually cause this 1-hour treatment to result in the disgusting and very satisfying peeling that can be seen on Baby Foot’s Instagram (seriously, go look) listen up. The first 4 ingredients are Aqua, Isopropyl Alcohol, LacticAcid, and Glycolic Acid. So we have some pretty intense ingredients – luckily the skin on the soles of our feet and the palms of our hands is the thickest on our body and can handle high concentrations like these. Seeing as it’s a bit of a popular ingredient right now I wanted to explore lactic acid and how it can help peel all the dead skin off my feet.

What is Lactic Acid?

Lactic Acid is an Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) which has keratolytic properties that helps exfoliate the skin. The classification of an AHA makes lactic acid a chemical exfoliant and has found its way into many personal care products such as cleansers, toners, serums, exfoliants (duh), and masks. Lactic acid is traditionally derived from milk but due to its instability in formulations, the ingredient is synthetically made for many cosmetic & personal care products. Along with being an effective chemical exfoliant, it can help with pigmentation, brightening, and skin smoothness. Lactic acid is particularly a great AHA for those with dry skin since the molecule is a bit bigger than most AHAs so it won’t irritate the skin too much and has a slight moisturizing effect. When you think about it – being a very thick and traditionally not a very well taken care area of our skin bringing out the big guns like IPA and lactic acid is probably necessary.

Do I have baby feet now?

I used this product ~10 days ago so I am still in the peeling process (it can last for around 2 weeks) so I will spare you all peeling feet pictures for now. While I am overall very happy with this experiment I was hoping for more peeling. My assumption is that most of the pictures online are posted of men’s feet (stereotyping here – but it’s definitely true in my eyes) so this would make a good present for literally any man in your life. On the bright side, this whole process makes me believe that the frequent pumicing of my feet is actually paying off because they didn’t need heavy exfoliation to be soft. Also, the lavender scent really doesn’t help much, it’s a pretty strong chemical scent so use the tape to help mask the odor.

One very important tip I have is to not use this treatment if you have any open sores or cuts on your feet. I know Baby Foot’s FAQs and booklet says this but I want to re-emphasize the importance. After a long birthday weekend of wearing heels and sandals for the first time all season, I decided it was the ideal time to put my blistered and cut up feet into these chemical booties. Every time I moved my toes that had open wounds on them it felt like I was getting stabbed (yes, that Boomerang on my Instagram nearly killed me). SO – important message here to make sure your feet are in good condition before use.

Have you ever tried Baby Foot? What did you think of your experience? Watching skin slowly peel off your feet is so much more satisfying than it sounds!